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Tawni Balfour
}} Tawni Balfour is a female human thief that acts as the main character of the A Pirate's Daughter campaign in Heroes of Might and Magic IV. Biography Childhood Tawni Balfour was born to a serving wench in a pirate bar on the coast of Nighon, and was not told her father's name. Since she was little, she was cleaning up in her mother's workplace, where there was an average of at least one death a night. When she was seven, a famous pirate captain, Black Balfour, showed up and gave her a dagger, telling her that if anyone did anything to her she didn't like, she could punish them with it. Shortly afterwards, her mother told her that Black Balfour was her father. When she was older, she found out about the existence of her half-brother Norry, another of her mother's children. She joined her half-brother's gang of thieves, and when he was betrayed by a friend and murdered as a result, Tawni found the perpetrator and tied him in a sack with seven hungry rats - a long, slow death that took over an hour to finish. Afterwards, Tawni decided that being a mere pickpocket and thief offered too much risk at too little profit, and turned to banditry. Some time during this period, her mother died. Tawni felt no grief at this, as her mother had often been neglectful if not outright cruel to her. Instead, she began to dream of joining her father's infamous crew. Piracy Tawni did not truly become a pirate, however, until after the Reckoning. After making her way to Axeoth, she settled in a town by the Gold Sea and began searching for a pirate crew that would recruit her. Though initially unsuccessful, she was finally able to bribe her way onto a ship, and over the next two years, learned every aspect of piracy she could - including reading, writing, and navigation. Eventually, however, she decided that the ship's crew did not pay her proper respect, and quit. In a stroke of fate, Tawni ran into Black Balfour's crew shortly afterwards, and immediately requested to join. To her surprise and disappointment, her father refused, as his crew had no shortage of men. Undaunted, Tawni stowed away on her father's ship, the Black Death, and revealed herself when the crew was far out to sea. Black Balfour, annoyed at the stubborn girl, ordered Tawni thrown overboard. Left bobbing in the sea with no chance of swimming to land, Tawni clung to life for a night and a day, unwilling to give up. On the following night, the Black Death returned, and Black Balfour, impressed with her tenacity, had her pulled from the sea. He then offered her a position in her crew, but only on the condition that she "make room" herself. With her last bit of strength, Tawni killed a nearby crewman, and finally became a member of her father's crew. Queen of the Gold Sea Tawni sailed by her father's side for several years, her awe for the man slowly waning as she realized how desperate he was to reclaim the wealth he had lost in the Reckoning. Eventually, Black Balfour died in a trap laid by a rival pirate, Captain Swift, and Tawni ascended to captaincy of the Black Death - which she quickly renamed the Feral Vixen - without a shred of regret. It was then that she began to pursue her ultimate dream: conquering the entire Gold Sea as the greatest pirate ever known. Category:Heroes IV characters Category:Heroes IV Thieves Category:Heroes IV campaign heroes